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Havenmine
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Havenmine
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Gauntlet
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Gauntlet
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Written by: Adam Daigle
Artwork by: James Keegan
Cartography by: Keith Curtis
Layout by: Daniel M. Perez
Domains of Adventure: The Havenmine Gauntlet
2
Situated in a high butte near the bend of a river After two days, with sentries posted around the
canyon, Havenmine, named for the predicted security clock, House Kotterstoke was about to pick their tools
of its lofty location, is anything but safe. A few years up and proceed when an impatient King Rendleklept
ago, when chasing a vein of garnets and other precious took from his meager armory a treasure that had been
gemstones, a house of diligent small folk and a tribe of handed down from king to king in the Bloodstone clan
ambitious kobolds met in a most awkward of situa- - the Scepter of Stone, a rod that could control the
tions. stone itself.
The jewel-hungry gnomes, led by Tramblin The king, frothing with an inflated sense of self, led
Kotterstoke and his four sons, began prospecting and four of his sorcerers and all of his best warriors to the
excavating shafts into the south side of the butte over end of the Heart Shaft bearing the treasured rod.
40 years ago, having no idea that the Bloodstone Clan When his clan was ready, he opened the shaft, peeling
had a network of tunnels and lairs threaded throughout back the stone in a wave of magic. The gnomes, caught
the north side of the massive cliff structure. The unaware, met a scattering of crossbow bolts and magi-
kobolds for that matter went on breeding and growing cal attacks. Not weak in their own right, the gnomes
unawares that their vein of garnets were being harvest- quickly retaliated with an onslaught of dazzling illu-
ed only a few hundred feet past their tunnels. sions and volleys of bolts from their own trusty cross-
bows.
Eight years ago, after each community pulled a
wealth of bright red jewels from the earth, the gnomes The battle for the Heart Shaft lasted three days.
found that the vein was not depleting, but rather Both groups, though small in stature, fought with
becoming richer and denser. King Rendleklept, leader bloody determination to clear the butte of each other.
of the Bloodstone Clan (only newly crowned in a short The gnomes fell back into their territory. Hours later,
but bloody coup against his father), urged the tribe into after fighting back wave after wave of kobolds, the
mining faster and deeper to chase the same discovery, gnomes were safe enough to make a desperate push to
as it appeared they were approaching the heart of this reclaim more of the mine. These events repeated and
wealth. the long give-and-take battle left both sides depleted
and broken. On the third day, after each side lost their
The report came down the tunnels early one day leaders, they called a stalemate. Preddleton Kotterstoke
that it sounded like something else was picking and replaced his father as head of the House, and
scratching at the rock beyond the end of the new shaft Glitkrenklet the cruelest and most powerful sorcerer
cutting into the heart of the butte. Kotterstoke sent among the Bloodstone clan claimed Rendleklept's
down a protection team and his best engineer and first crown with little opposition. Both the gnomes and
son, Preddleton. Rendleklept also received word of kobolds began to fortify their halves of the Heart
strange noises in the Heart Shaft and sent a raiding Shaft, carving the stone to fit their guerrilla needs, the
party fortified by his two best sorcerers. series of traps and chokepoints known as the
Havenmine Gauntlet.
As the digging halted on both sides, the respective
gatherings of cautious small humanoids waited. The It is not difficult for heroes to gain access to the
gnomes, armed and ready to defend their treasure from Gauntlet from the gnomish side of the complex. House
the frightening creatures that lurk below ground, wait- Kotterstoke allows adventurers to enter, free of charge,
ed to hear further sounds from behind the rock. The the neutral ground, the part of the tunnel where the
kobolds, fearful of the large creatures below seeking to initial breach occurred. They consider heroes a good
feed upon them, stood defiantly in defense of their way to help keep the number of kobolds in check.
mine and warrens.
Domains of Adventure: The Havenmine Gauntlet
3
Area Details
Area 2: The Mason's
Outside of the gnomish defenses, the Gauntlet takes
on a rough look, being hastily carved from the pale grey
Surprise
rhyolite that forms the butte, a volcanic stone similar in
A fetid burst of stale decay hits the adventurers as the door
composition to granite. The walls of the Gauntlet
opens revealing a low wall in the center of this long, nar-
shine with flecks of obsidian and garnets. The ceilings
row passage. Bricks and mortar cover the walls, ceiling and
reach up barely over six feet in the neutral ground then
floor breaking the theme of natural stone in these caverns.
open up to barely eight feet, unless noted otherwise.
The barricade, which looks to be organic, stands in a tow-
The doors in the Gauntlet vary between simple wood-
ering lump nearly four feet tall. Closer inspection reveals
en doors to steel reinforced variations. All doors are
the composition of the wall to be desiccated gnome corpses.
unlocked unless otherwise noted. Any room in the
Four pairs of wooden columns run the length of this part of
Gauntlet promises a chance of ambush by warriors of
the gauntlet each decorated with at least one husk of a
the Bloodstone Clan.
gnome hanging with frayed rope from the narrow pillars.
A low wide door waits at the far end of the room.
After the initial battle and the successive raids,
Area 1: Neutral Ground
bodies started piling up. The kobolds burned their fall-
This cramped rough-hewn mineshaft sparkles with flecks of
en warriors as tradition required, but they kept the
precious stone. In the center of the shaft, the rock looks as if
gnome bodies in order to strike fear and stoke disgust
it were soft wax molded into an open portal. Past that, a
in their enemies. At one point in the battle, this room
small steel reinforced door stands alone on a rocky wall
came to be a chokepoint. As the corpses accumulated,
where the floor lies scattered with rubble and broken glass.
the kobolds continued to stack them to use as cover.
Slanderous racial graffiti covers the walls in hasty scrawls.
The tiny scaly creatures viciously fired volleys of cross-
bow bolts, one after another, from behind these piles of
Less a neutral ground and more a no man's land,
enemy bodies, thus adding to their defenses.
both sides of this conflict realized the draw on
Eventually they bisected the room with a growing
resources guarding this room created, thus they chose
mound of gnomes in various stages of decay. The car-
to put their trust into their traps and defenses. The
cass barrier contains cubbyholes, carved into the fleshy
gnomes have experience with this room and tell the
muck, from which the kobolds fire upon intruders.
adventurers how to bypass the trap safely. They offer to
Glitkrenklet stations this room with guards ready to
provide a cloud of smoke or a bright light to hide the
signal the tribe of an impending attack.
group's presence and dazzle the kobolds while two of
the members of the party simultaneously reach into
The snipers and the barrier of rotting flesh are the
hidden holes and free a latch. A third member of the
least of the adventurer's worries. If the barrier is dis-
group must stand ready to shove the small door open.
turbed at any point or more than 75 pounds of weight
Sadly, the gnomes cannot help the party with any fur-
is concentrated in any point adjacent the wall, the floor
ther details. As they tell it, the kobolds are obsessive
and ceiling collapses, dropping the adventurers into a
with making new and better traps, that they change the
five foot deep pit and raining masonry down upon
traps and rooms of the Gauntlet on a whim.
them. In addition to the abuse from dropping into dif-
ficult terrain and being pelted with stones, a number of
animated gnome zombies fall from a sealed compart-
ment above, within range, and hungrily attack.
Domains of Adventure: Havenmine Gauntlet
4
house the rope. Stored tension in the ropes causes the
Area 3: Tilt and Whirl
nets to spin as they rise.
Piled in random heaps, stone that once made up this portion
While entangled in the nets the victims are bludg-
of the butte lays strewn across the passage floor. The chunks
eoned by the medium-sized stones, while the smaller
of scattered stone could have fallen from above as the ceiling
rocks and slivers drop through the gaps in the mesh. To
of this chamber hides in the darkness above. The walls of the
add insult to injury, long spears are set into the ceiling,
chamber are marked with deep grooves arranged in a peri-
waiting to skewer the captured intruders.
odic pattern. Miners might recognize this feature as being
pilot holes used to perforate the rock for easier extraction. A
low squat steel door stares across from the opposite of the
passage.
Area 4: Will You Walk
The rubble imposes slower movement in the room
Into My Parlor?
and anyone digging deep enough within the gravel
finds a grid of ropes on the true floor of the room.
Similar to the last chamber, this 20-foot by 40-foot room is
Anyone stepping in the square directly in front of the
a field of gravel with a low imposing ceiling. The roof of
exit door triggers the first stage of this dangerous trap.
the passage is eight feet near the doors, dipping down to
Two huge nets cover the floor in this passage and thick
barely six feet in the center. The rough walls on the sides of
ropes, like hand lines in casting nets, run up the
the chamber clash with the decently finished and polished
grooves in the walls, gathering to a single strand in the
wall at the far end that frames a shining steel door crudely
darkness 30 feet overhead. Winches in the ceiling draw
hammered with an imprint of a ferocious dragon.
the catch 60 feet up to a hole cored specifically to
The gravel conceals an enormous web covering the
entire floor. The central 20 feet of this chamber is a 20-
foot deep circular pit housing a large monstrous spider
and her newly hatched brood. Characters breaking the
membrane of web covering the pit fall 10 feet into a
well-strung web, alerting the ravenous mother and her
skittering children. Ten feet below the sticky snare, the
rocky floor bristles with narrow steel blades.
Attempting to break or burn the web drops the cap-
tured adventurers onto the prickly floor. The spiders,
having feasted from many victims off the floor, antici-
pate the web snapping and viciously attack their prey to
cause them to wriggle around enough to break the web.
The mother easily jumps to safety while her brood
drops to the ground with the adventurers, unharmed by
the jutting blades.
The door at the far end of the chamber stands
locked and has two keyholes fitted into the eyes of the
rampant dragon. While crude, the rendition would be
noticeable to those well versed in dragon lore as a blue
dragon. The keyhole on the left disables the shocking
trap placed on this steel door while the keyhole on the
right unlocks it.
Domains of Adventure: The Havenmine Gauntlet
5
the lizards to discharge dangerous bursts of electricity.
Creatures entering this chamber, constantly in contact
with the copper grid, are subject to their lethal shock
ability.
The door on the opposite side of the room sits
flush with the wall and does not appear to have a han-
dle, lock or hinges. Cold to the touch and lightly cov-
ered in frost, this steel panel, sealed with ice on the
others side, will not budge with casual shoves and must
be forced open.
Area 6: Cold Blows
the Wind
Cracking the steel panel from the icy sheath of the neighbor-
ing room, the rime-coated plate seems hinged on the inside
and scrapes loudly against the glacial features of the twist-
ed passage. Jutting icicles reach forth from every wall like
gnashing teeth. The floor is smooth and slick with ice and a
constant wind chills one to the bone.
Barricades of razor-sharp ice reach from the former
mineshaft creating a winding maze toward the exit
Area 5: Shock Unseen
door. Movement through this passage is perilous and
The door to this 20-foot square chamber opens to reveal a
slow to avoid losing one's balance and falling to the
clean and polished room. Thin ribbons of copper form a grid
frozen ground. The spiky icicle-covered walls snag and
on every surface. A small, nearly unnoticeable puddle lies at
slash adventurers moving past them too quickly. The
the foot of the steel door at the other end.
air in this tunnel is frightfully cold and adventurers
moving through it are subject to damaging cold and
Gritklenklet demanded his sorcerers and engineers
frostbite. Any creature reaching the center of the maze
collaborate in the making of deviously experimental
triggers a trap subjecting all within the passage to a
traps. The tribal king is most interested in how things
violent gust of wind. This wind blasts in short gales
play out here, as this chamber has rarely seen visitors
every round, pushing characters backwards into and
since its creation.
scrambling across the razor-sharp icicles until the tun-
nel is clear of living creatures.
The room has a permanent invisibility effect on all
living creatures that enter the chamber. Stepping over
The steel panel at the end of the tunnel, crusted
the threshold of the room causes the character to wink
with ice like the entrance, forgivingly has a ring firmly
out of sight. Unknown to the party, three bound shock-
planted in the center. The frosty metal seal still requires
er lizards occupy the room. The kobold sorcerers
a strong pull to break it free of the clinging ice.
enchanted this room to cut off silent, visual communi-
cation and hand signals used by the stealthy gnomish
raiders. It also serves to distract larger groups, allowing
Domains of Adventure: The Havenmine Gauntlet
6
Stepping into the room triggers three puffs of
harmless smoke, enough to create a light haze in the
room. Moving inside the rapidly clearing fog, three fig-
ures are visible: one imposing figure in the center, with
two flanking him in the back of the room. These com-
batants are brutish kobolds standing head and shoul-
ders taller than a typical specimen. They crackle with
flashing sparks and hiss menacingly at the intruders,
but stand their ground. These impressive kobolds are
merely illusions baiting the adventurers into the cham-
ber.
When a character takes a step onto the central dais,
the outer ring rises to the ceiling, effectively sealing the
room shut. The outer ring stays in its raised position
for two minutes before lowering on its own accord.
Pulling the appropriate chain lowers the barrier prema-
turely; however, pulling the incorrect chain rains darts
upon the trapped character.
When the dais drops again, the two remaining
combatants continue to goad the adventurers into bat-
tle. The kobold sorcerers did not think their plan fully
through, as a trapped character can easily recognize the
brutish kobolds as illusions. Stepping off the dais in the
center causes the outer ring to drop to a 20-foot pit.
Area 7: Keyhole
After two minutes, the ring returns to its original posi-
tion. Again, pulling the appropriate chain resets the
Entering this wide chamber alleviates any lingering bouts
chamber. Choosing the incorrect chain riddles the
of claustrophobia. The room opens up into an inverted
room with darts.
wedge, widening to 30 feet at the far wall, featuring a
large steel-reinforced door in the center depicting a rampant
Four different locks bolt shut the door in the back
dragon. Eight keyholes hide in the grooves and curves of the
of the chamber, and each is keyed to a number of dan-
image. The floor of the chamber rises up in two concentric
gerous magical effects. Bypassing the locks requires
tiers barely two feet high at the center. Above the central
choosing the appropriate key dangling from the chains
dais hangs a tangle of chains each holding a ring of mis-
in the center of the room. Using the wrong key or fail-
matched keys. The ceiling is higher in this room than any
ing a skillful attempt at evading the lock triggers one of
other place in the Gauntlet, reaching up twenty feet.
the effects. One failed attempt sets off a gout of blister-
ing flame while another summons an acidic cloud.
Gritklenkret's sorcerers poured most of their
After solving all four locks, the door opens on its own.
thought and energy into this chamber, so much that
On the other side the tunnels belonging to the kobolds
the aura of magic is almost palpable. The sanctum
await.
serves as a last point of resistance and the kobold sor-
cerers had ample time to enchant the place. It holds
great dangers and perhaps more complexity than is
needed.
Domains of Adventure: The Museum of Infamous Heroism
7
Months ago when the gnomes had more of an
Adventure Ideas
advantage and held territory now claimed by the
kobolds, Kembra Hodgemip lost a valuable heirloom
The Havenmine Gauntlet can be easily placed at the
while building up defenses. While constructing a pro-
front door of any dungeon; however, some Game
tective wall, the laborers suffered a devastating raid.
Masters might want to use this adventure location as a
Forced into a hasty retreat, Kembra dropped her
quick diversion for an abbreviated gaming session. The
enchanted rock hammer into a deep pit and fears the
following suggestions provide motivation for charac-
kobolds discovered the tool. Recent infiltrators have
ters to run the Gauntlet.
remarked on the superior artisanship found behind the
neutral zone.
Having sat at an impasse for months, the gnomes
seek mercenaries to aid them in taking the Gauntlet.
A kobold raiding party, aided by two of
Fueled not only by their desire to harvest the garnets in
Gritklenkret's sorcerers, managed to snatch Finkin
the Heart Shaft, the gnomes also seek to end their
Piltwiss, Preddleton's superintendent. Without him
bloody and resource-draining siege. Preddleton
construction on newer defenses slowed to a crawl. The
Kotterstoke sends emissaries out into the neighboring
laborers continue to work, but the plans for the new
communities in search of able-bodied adventurers.
protections rest in Finkin's head alone, as the clever
Preddleton advised his representatives to keep an eye
gnome destroyed the prints during the raid. Preddleton
out for dwarves as they know the terrain better and will
is most interested in getting his friend back to work in
have an easier time maneuvering the cramped passages.
one piece, provided he is still alive.
Domains of Adventure: Havenmine Gauntlet
8
Domains of Adventure: Havenmine Gauntlet
9
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